(Newser)
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The Volkswagen executive who once was in charge of complying with US emissions regulations has been arrested by the FBI in connection with the company's emissions-cheating scandal, a person briefed on the matter said Monday. Oliver Schmidt, who was general manager of the engineering and environmental office for VW of America, was arrested over the weekend in the federal criminal investigation, reports the AP. Schmidt is the second VW employee to be arrested as the probe led by the US attorney's office in Detroit continues. The New York Times reported that he's expected to be arraigned Monday on a conspiracy charge in a federal courtroom in Detroit.

Schmidt's bio for a 2012 auto industry conference said he was responsible for ensuring that vehicles built for sale within the United States and Canada comply with "past, present, and future air quality and fuel economy government standards in both countries." It says he served as the company's direct factory and government agency contact for emissions regulations. Volkswagen has admitted that it programmed diesel-powered vehicles to turn pollution controls on during tests and turn them off in real-world driving. The scandal has cost VW sales and has tarnished its brand worldwide. In Britain, meanwhile, thousands of VW buyers just filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, reports the Guardian.

BRahahahahahahahahahaah The FBI arrested someone??? Brahahahahahahahahaha They'll probably not prosecute because they can't find enough wrong doing and there was no intent!!! Brahahahahahahahahahaha

Abbey

Jan 9, 2017 8:48 PM CST

Well, he'll likely get a pardon after our new head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, gets in there and strips all of the regulations out anyway. He's a notorious climate change denyer and fought to have the EPA completely shut down when his benefactors in big oil had their lawyers pen letters fighting every significant environmental regulation in the last ten years. Pruitt has spent much of his energy as attorney general fighting the very agency he is being nominated to lead. So the FBI and the US Attorney General have wasted their time trying to do the right thing. He is the third of Trump’s nominees who have key philosophical differences with the missions of the agencies they have been tapped to run. Ben Carson, named to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has expressed a deep aversion to the social safety net programs and fair housing initiatives that have been central to that agency’s activities. Betsy DeVos, trumps pick for education secretary, has a passion for private school vouchers that undercut the public school systems at the core of the government’s mission and privatize public education with lotteries. If we've learned anything from privatized prisons it's that they don't work.